like the wild fruit of the wilderness, and of those that are like the smaller and more ordinary growth of the field and forest, and of all the rest we have been in the habit of leaving out of the measure of good fruit to God, we are to be satisfied with anything short of the uttermost goodness, largeness, and ripeness we can possibly attain to. The worst farmer I ever knew, was a man who was always sure that his landlord would not trouble him about either rent or crop, because his family had been, time out of mind, in the sunshine of their lord's favor. It is always the danger of our confidence in God's providence, that we shall come to think it will be satisfied with our improvidence. Only as we nake the best of what we have, and so become the best we can be, shall we win the great "welldone;" and no man or woman ought ever to be satisfied with anything less than to try for it. Patience, perseverance, good endeavor through storm and shine, the uplifted heart, the pure life, the large sympathy, the faith that was in Christ, and the truth, and the love, these will bring into my own life an ever ripening perfection, and

save me from the poor perversity of thinking that God has not an infinite store of fruit as good as mine or better.

"So will I gather strength and hope anew,

For I do know God's patient love perceives,
Not what we did, but what we tried to do;
And though the ripened ears be sadly few,
He will accept our sheaves."

V.

HOW ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD.

GEN. v. 22: "Enoch walked with God."

THE first part of my text is the most striking characterization of a good man's life to be found in our Bible; the last, the most touching record of a good man's end. It is said of other men, that they followed after God, or walked in the way of God; that this one died full of years, and that one satisfied; but it is reserved for this man alone to win and hold this great place to walk with God as with a dear friend, voice answering to voice, hand touching hand, face reflecting face, from the beginning to the end of life; then, when the end comes, Death is shorn of his terrors, casting no more shadow on Enoch's spirit than if it were the spirit of a yearling child; the life that now is opening into that which is to come, as a clear twilight opens into day.

And it is not needful to tell you how blessed

such a life and death must be. I know you will agree with me, that no life can be more beautiful, no end more desirable. The most primitive characterization of a good man's life, this is still as much as can be said of any man, more than any man I have ever known would like to say of his own life, or predict of his death. And this is notable, because in this light the text is as good for what it teaches in doctrine, as for what it testifies to life. Because, if I inquire to-day after the essential conditions of a perfect walk with God, — what I must do to attain eternal life,

-I am directed, in our common Christian teaching, to do at least five things: first, to study carefully my Bible; second, to come to God through his Son, Christ Jesus; third, to join the Christian church; fourth, to keep the Sabbath; and fifth, to observe the ordinances, such as the Lord's Supper. These are counted essential conditions to a perfect walk with God in our time. If I am faithful to four of them, I am not considered quite so good as if I keep the five. If I say church and sacrament are not essential, I am considered still more out of the true path. But if I then go on to say the Sabbath is not essential, — that a man

may be saved in other ways than by faith in the personal and risen Christ, and that the Bible must be servant to the soul, not the soul to the Bible,

then Christian men tell me I cannot walk with God at all, and that my end will be a leap in the dark after a life in the dark, with dark faces all about me.

But I brush the dust away from this most hon. orable name, and ask what Enoch had of all this that is made so essential to me; and I find that he had no Bible, no knowledge of this personal Christ, no church, no Sabbath, and no sacraments; which brings me, by a very short and simple way, to this great truth; that all these things, very good, never to be undervalued by any soundhearted man, are not, after all, essential to the perfect life, or else Enoch had not been able to attain to this perfection before they were heard of; and that under these outward and visible signs there must be, therefore, some inward and spiritual grace, possessing which at any time, in any land, a man possesses all things can walk with God as Enoch did, and find at the last that mortality is swallowed up in life.

What crumb of proof is needed to show that